Note 138 — Chapter III · The Bailly of Troyes French Ambassador in England (1533)

Letters and Papers, Henry VIII., vol. v., 1531-1532, No. 627, Grant 18. Bridewell Palace has fared badly compared with some other houses of the same date, for not only has every trace of it disappeared, but few records or prints exist to give an idea of its appearance in Tudor times. The early period at which it ceased to be a royal residence probably accounts for this deficiency. Edward VI. converted it to benevolent purposes as a kind of workhouse for vagrants; and this use, gradually approaching the functions of a house of correction, was continued in the new buildings erected after the Great Fire almost to the present day. Nearly all the engravings of Bridewell refer to its later history. There are, however, one or two exceptions, on a small scale, and on these the above description is founded. Perhaps the most accurate idea of the palace in Tudor times is to be obtained from the “View of London and Southwark in 1543,” by Anthony Vanden Wyngrerde (Oxford, Bodleian Library; a facsimile in pen-and-ink by N. Whittock may be seen at the Guildhall, London). As certain details of this view agree with a later drawing of about 1660, it is likely that it is more correct than the intermediate version by Ralph Aggas, which shows variations not to be found either in the earlier or later engraving mentioned (“Civitas Londinum,” a map of London, Westminster and Southwark, surveyed by Ralph Aggas about the year 1560, Guildhall Library). The view of 1660 may be seen in “Bridewell Palace as it appeared about the year 1660” (Published for the Proprietors by W. Herbert, Penlington Place, Lambeth, 1817). The same work gives a vignette professing to represent Bridewell in the year 1540. As this view differs equally from that given by Wyngrerde (1543) and that of 1660, it should probably be received with caution.